Ramallah - Ma'an - A group of civil society institutions recommended holding a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mustafa and informing him of the results and recommendations of the 2023 Palestine Press Freedom Index report. They also recommended circulating it to the departments of media colleges in Palestinian universities due to its importance and high credibility in helping students and researchers in Palestine. These recommendations came during the workshop held by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) today, Monday 07/15/2024, at its headquarters in Ramallah, to announce the most important results of the fifth edition of the Press Freedom Index in Palestine, which was prepared for last year 2023 in the West Bank only, excluding the Gaza Strip, due to the difficult circumstances the Strip is going through as a result of the ongoing Israeli war on it since October 7th. The scale recorded (361) points out of a total of 1000 points, a difference of (23) points f rom the previous year, as the overall result indicated a low level, or a 'difficult' (red) rating, which is the rating whose categories fall between (201-400) points. The workshop was opened with a welcome by Dr. Ghazi Hanania, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mada, to all attendees from civil society institutions and international institutions that were able to attend via Zoom technology. He pointed out the importance of completing the index in light of the complex circumstances experienced by Palestinians in general and the media sector in particular, after the number of martyred journalists reached more than 158 journalists since the start of the Israeli war on the Strip. The expert and statistical researcher, Muhammad Daraghmeh, also briefly reviewed the Press Freedom Index and the methodology used to prepare it, as well as the areas and indicators on which this index was based. The attendees discussed the difficult circumstances experienced by Palestinian journalists as a result of the double pre ssures they face from all sides, which had a negative impact on the results of the report, especially in light of the absence of a Palestinian Legislative Council, which makes it difficult to hold accountable the violations of Palestinian media freedoms. In this context, the institutions came out with many recommendations, including the need to hold an official meeting with the Palestinian Prime Minister and inform him of the results of this report and its recommendations in an attempt to make the necessary amendments to the legislative media environment, including reviewing the Electronic Crimes Law and some of its articles, and pushing towards the enactment of the Right to Access Information Law, which Mada Center had previously extracted promises from the former Prime Minister to enact due to its importance for journalists and citizens as well, since without reforming some laws and enacting others, there is no possibility of making progress regarding issues of freedom of opinion and expression. The attend ing institutions agreed on the necessity of publishing the report and its recommendations and disseminating them on the widest scale, especially to the media departments in Palestinian universities, to encourage media students to read it and to enable researchers in the media field to benefit from it. The attendees also highlighted the importance of having a specific body responsible for following up on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report, and the need for concerted efforts to be doubled in order to bring about positive change in the state of media freedoms, which has begun to approach the low (black) level. It is worth noting that the Mada Center has been working on preparing this index for six years to measure the extent of progress and decline in the level of freedom of expression in all Palestinian geographical areas and to compare them based on the results of previous indicators. The index for the year 2023 came with the support of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED ), and was implemented in the West Bank without the Gaza Strip due to the war that the Strip is being subjected to - which is still ongoing - which prevented a comprehensive analysis and comparison between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Source: Maan News Agency
Sunday, September 08, 2024